A Way to Run Trials - PCs as Defence Attourneys

Hey! I asked DMAcademy what would be a good way to play out a trial. And we came up with a way I liked and I think it went pretty well!

Here's what I did, in case you wanted to do something similar. My main design aim was to present a puzzle rather than a persuasion skill challenge, and I borrowed heavily from the Phoenix Wright formula to do that.

First off, magic was banned but I didn't use an anti-magic field. I wanted to encourage arguments and evidence rather than let the PCs use clever spells. My players have very few spells right now, so I don't know if this would have been an issue. There was a single judge and no jury, to simplify things.

• The players have spent the last 3 sessions investigating this crime, and I wanted them to remember all the evidence that they have at their disposal. I gave the Players a whiteboard and asked them to recall crime scene evidence, documents, and witnesses, as well as what each proves.

• In the interest of inclusion I let the players act as a hive mind, even though one PC was waiting as a witness. I also did this so that they'd have less chance of getting stuck.

• I had the prosecution witnesses go first, first a guard who was allegedly at the scene, then another couple witnesses, then the plaintiff himself.

• Each enemy witness' testimony came in the form of ~6 statements, some of which were bare-faced lies that they had evidence to contradict. Once I'd read out the testimony I handed over a paper copy that they could scrutinise.

• Once all the enemy witnesses were safely discredited the defence got to run around all the bases and have their own witnesses testify. Here I forgot to have the prosecution really do anything to oppose them but that would just be rp

• The judge declares the defendant not guilty and they all meet in the break room. In restrospect I could've just had the judge suspend sentence pending an investigation of the PCs' theory.

And that's how it went down. My players really got into it and I'd recommend this framework, at least as a starting point!